Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., was the keynote speaker June 16, 2018 at the Virginia Democratic Party's biggest fund-raiser of the year. A southern state that has increasingly trended Democratic, Virginia is vital to presidential candidates, which Booker could be in 2020.
NorthJersey

Sen. Cory Booker will headline a Democratic dinner in Iowa next month that often draws presidential candidates, another sign – following his dramatic defiance of GOP-imposed confidentiality rules at Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings this week – that New Jersey's first African American senator is preparing for a 2020 run.

Booker has been traveling the country this year to help candidates running in midterm congressional elections. He was in Texas Saturday campaigning with candidates including Rep. Beto O'Rourke, who is vying to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz. On Saturday night, he was to be the state party's annual Johnson-Jordan Dinner.

The trip to Iowa would be Booker's first this year to the state that kicks off the presidential selection process. Iowa's state chair, Troy Price, said Democrats were "thrilled" to get Booker.

“Senator Booker represents a future-driven vision for our party and our nation that has inspired millions," Price said in a news release. "As we head in to the most grueling weeks of this cycle, we hope that his message will be the fuel Iowa Democrats need to put our candidates over the top in November.”

When Booker headlined a similar dinner in Virginia in June, the state party's executive director compared Booker's ability to draw Democrats to Clinton and President Barack Obama. The former Newark mayor with more than 4 million followers on Twitter is often stopped in the Capitol from tourists seeking selfies.

Booker had a lucrative side line giving speeches around the country while he was a mayor, earning $350,000 in 2012 and $431,000 in 2013, the year he won a special election to the Senate, where speaking fees are prohibited.

Booker often mixes tales from his personal biography, including his parents' experience breaking the race barrier to buy a home in the North Jersey suburb where he grew up, Harrington Park, with condemnation of inequality, especially in the justice system.

At the Kavanaugh hearings, Booker and Sen. Kamala Harris of California were both under scrutiny as new members of the Judiciary Committee and potential 2020 contenders. Harris' questioning on Wednesday night about whether Kavanaugh discussed special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation with the law firm of an attorney for President Donald Trump got wide play on social media.

Before she spoke, Booker had read from documents, including an email chain with the subject line "racial profiling," from Kavanaugh's tenure in President George W. Bush's White House. Reading the document violated rules that had deemed the presidential records confidential unless Democrats had prior permission to disclose them.

On Thursday morning, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, objected to the use of the documents and said senators who couldn't follow the rules did not deserve to be on the committee or in the chamber. Booker replied that he read the documents as an act of civil disobedience in objection and was willing to face ouster for defying what he considered a "sham" process. He said he was going to instruct his staff to release the emails, but Republicans said Booker had already been informed the committee's classification had been lifted.

Throughout Thursday, however, Booker released other documents that had not been cleared, even as opponents on social media mocked him, especially for his reference to the line "I am Spartacus" after Democrats said they would stand by him if he were punished.

Cornyn said on Twitter on Friday that Booker should be investigated by the ethics committee for violating the committee's confidentiality rules.